added by Matthew Giampetroni · updated 2y ago
Smoke and Mirrors — Remains of the Day
- We don’t have to hold supreme power to be supremely powerful. We don’t have to ‘wear the purple,’ as they said of the emperor, to stand out. No, we just have to show up. Do a great job. Hold ourselves to high standards. We don’t need to be honored to be honorable. That’s not something the position gives, it’s something we give the position.
from How To Be A King
Ben Coffee added
- Transparency Creates A Steep Power Law James: And so we’re back to the power-law problem. Which is that some people are very charismatic and other people just aren’t. Some people are really fast, and smart, and interesting to listen to and some people aren’t... And these attention systems we have today — and this identity of the individual with the... See more
from Li Jin on The Passion Economy & Its Hidden Currency by NFX
Sixian added
You see, I have always found it difficult to understand that in fact one can only be oneself. Who else could you be? Changeability and hypocrisy and performance are parts of who we are. And what is empirical reality, anyway?
from Bjarki, Not Bjarki by Matthew J. C. Clark
Debbie Foster and added
- Yet when you have created a simulation-like environment that is immune to reality, this is what happens. You refuse to believe what everyone else can easily see. It is sort of like the old folk tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes. It is about the power of cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias to avoid facing reality. The current obsession of pol... See more
from Leadership and the Culture of Simulation. by Ed Brenegar
Jay Matthews added
This, then, is the key sleight-of-hand at the heart of our psychosocial problems: We pretend we’re in charge, both to others and even to ourselves, but we’re less in charge than we think. We pose as privileged insiders, when in fact we’re often making the same kind of educated guesses that any informed outsider could make. We claim to know our own
... See morefrom The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life by Robin Hanson
Sean Rose added
- When we presume to lie for the benefit of others, we have decided that we are the best judges of how much they should understand about their own lives—about how they appear, their reputations, or their prospects in the world.
from Making Sense | Sam Harris by Sam Harriss
sari added
If you want to decipher who you are, it’s good to begin with the question of what stories have been told about you. Do this not because they are true but because they will help you locate the mirages and their origins. They will help you rend mask from flesh. They may also help you grab hold of something real.
from This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley
meghna added
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
